LILA - Frank A. Coe - "Mantis In Lace" (1968)

"Lila", "Mantis In Lace" or whatever you want to call it, is essentially a very low budget soft-core Killer-Diller-Thriller with probably a good third of the film taken up with footage of various strippers shaking and shimmying to some killer music by Frank A. Coe, who sometimes worked using the name Fattie Beltbuckle! If you like boobs, you'll love this movie! The film takes place in New York, not San Francisco, but I'm sure they've got some good polka bands there too!!

I guess I wasn't paying real close attention but I'm pretty sure this is Vic Lance as Tiger, "The Hippie!" You can tell he's a hippie because as the police so astutely point out, he's wearing an earring!! East Coast hippie for sure, Vic also wrote the "Lila" theme song that was sung by Lynn Harper!!

This is either Janu Wine, Judith Crane, or Cheryl Trepton! All real strippers, none of these gals were ever in any other films, so it's a little tricky finding any real hard info! I think this is Cheryl, what do you think? Or, maybe it's Mary Lou "who took the key to my Cadillac car, jumped in the kitty and drove afar!"

Acid gobblin' predator Susan Stewart as "Lila" herself, had a couple more roles as a hooker or prostitute, did five episodes of "Hawaii Five-O" and went on to sell real estate!!

Rags to riches cinematographer László Kovács works the wonder of his magic eye in these crazy psychedelic love scenes!!

Uh, Oh! Flashbacks!!!

Bummer, Man! Bad trip!!

Time to call in the befuddled cops! Here we have Steve Vincent as Sergeant Collins on the left, and M.K. Evans as Lieutenant Ryan on the right. M.K. was done with acting after this flick! Aka Steve Stunning, (Sounds like a Wrassler) Steve Vincent went on to do some fine cheap sex flicks with titles like "Thar She Blows" and "The Secret Sex Lifes of Romeo And Juliet!"

Stuart Lancaster, sometimes known as 'Studs' Lancaster, was also in the same listed films as Steve Vincent, and also had a stunning career in Cult Films!

Stu had many performances in flicks like "Godmonster of Indian Flats," Russ Meyer's "Supervixens," "Captain Milkshake," and "Mistress Of The Apes" before landing some small parts in big films like "Edward Scissorhands" and "Batman Returns!"

But to Lila, he is just another sad case in need of disposal!!

My favorite line, "Did you get a make on the box??"

At some point, you can kinda understand Lila's feelings! Personally, I would have killed to have been able to go to this show! Procol Harum in a small club setting, with The Youngbloods opening, get out of town!!!! Can you even begin to imagine Banana and Robin Trower jamming together?

If you're a guy, after about 43 minutes into this film, you might start questioning your sexuality, because the cops become more interesting than the strippers!!!

And also, now all you guys realize this is what it takes for those girls to get out there and perform for you!! Stoned out of their ever livin' minds!!!

Composer Frank Coe had a varied career in sound and music, and worked on a bevy of films that would fill a psychotronic scrapbook, with titles like "Monsters Crash The Pajama Party," "Lemon Grove Kids Meet The Monsters," "The Wizard Of Mars" and "Blood Shack!"

Aw Shit! Not out of victims yet! Okay Bill, I think we're starting to get the point!!

Still feeling a little gay, it's time for the guys to go into action one more time!!

The last victim gets a little different treatment!!! "Don't you know that's against the law?"

"My law says groove baby, stay up and don't come down!"

And, in the end, in theory, Lila gets her just rewards!!

Check it out! I've added a new cut to the jukebox from this film, a manic surf and stripper number that rumbles down the alley like cheap booze! Yeah, I don't like the look of the new player either, but at least it works! Enjoy yourself!!

THE OUTER LIMITS / "Corpus Earthling" Season 1 Episode 9 - 1963

What's XMAS without some Outer Limits!.. That's what I always say. So, here is a very depressing episode from the first season, and, it goes like this... A parasitic advance guard from outer space strives to kill a physician because he's the only human who can hear them communicate because of a metal plate in his head. The physician believes he's gone insane because he first heard the aliens right after suffering a concussion in a lab explosion. His wife, the laboratory assistant, comforts him while the lab's geologist is targeted for takeover by the parasites.

This one stars Robert Culp, who played tennis bum Kelly Robinson on I SPY, a show I loved back in the day. Salome Jens plays Robert's wife, she was the crazy looking gal from the future in TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000, what Eegah!! and I saw around 1960 at the theater. It also stars Barry (THE INVADERS) Atwater, Ken (KILLER DILLER) Renard and David (TRAUMA) Garner.

Here's Laurie Cameron in the lab, she's putting up some new rock samples for study.

After an explosion, Paul Cameron is dazed, he claims to have heard some alien voices discussing the plans for an invasion of Earth! But like, you know,.. What, The, HELL!!

The other person at the lab, Dr. Temple, and Laurie, surmise that the metal plate in Paul's head (he was wounded in WWII) could have served as a receiver (they actually believe him!).

But later, Paul starts hearing the voices again, and, he becomes hypnotized and is ordered to jump out of a third story window!! He's barely saved from the fall.

After Paul and Laurie leave, and have decided on a vacation in Mexico, one rock transforms into a slimy parasite and attacks Dr. Temple. It isn't long before the thing takes over his body.

And now, he looks like this!!.. The thing knows what it has to do.

Pant, phew... It's hot and sultry in Mexico this time of year you know... hubba hubba!

And guess who shows up to ruin all the fun while Paul's away?.. Doh! Stupid question!

Well, it's not long before Laurie becomes a victim, and, it ain't pretty! I have to tell you, this episode is a real horror fest, and, it gets worse!

So, Paul returns to his adored wife and is greeted by THIS!.. He makes a hasty retreat and disappears into the city to hide from the invaders.

W!.. T!!.. F!!!..

Blind shadows is one of my fondest memories from the fifties!

Now back at the ranch, Paul has to fend off the thing's attack and ends up stabbing it with a scalpel, killing Dr. Temple and releasing the parasite. That second still is pretty damn freaky!

Anyway, here's the deal... Paul ends up shooting his 'wife' to destroy both parasites with fire. He carries his dead wife to the car as the narrator bids us adieu with a dire warning, watch out for monsters!! Happy Holidays Ever'bloody! Later!..

BLOW UP - Herbie Hancock, The Yardbirds - "História de Um Fotógrafo" (1966)

Well, it seems like the mid-week blues have kind of turned Wednesday into Spy Thriller Mystery Killer-Diller Chiller nite lately, not exactly monsters, but I've been diggin' it, and I hope you have too! Tonight is no exception, cause when you want to talk about rock music in a 60's movie you have to talk about "Blowup!"

SOUNDCLIP NOT AVAILABLE

David Hemmings is Thomas, The Photographer!!

The statuesque Veruschka von Lehndorff, a real original supermodel plays herself!! When she modeled, she was just known only by her first name, Veruschka!!

So if for some strange reason, you don't know about this film, Thomas is shooting some fotos in a park, and Vanessa Redgrave as Jane, gets all hot and bothered over it, so he figures out something isn't right because she's rabid about getting the pictures from him, so he starts blowing them up, bigger and bigger until he starts seeing details like that gun in the bushes!

Director Michelangelo Antonioni had some funny vision as Thomas walks under this outcropping in his flat, and just barely clears it without bumping his head!!

These two frisky little birds, Jane Birkin in the back and Gillian Hills in front, pursue Thomas, and Director Antonioni uses them to full advantage!! Jane was billed solely as "The Blonde" and Gillian was billed as "The Brunette!" Hot!

Just seeing The Yardbirds with Keith Relf, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck in it, was then, and is now, well worth the price of admission, and the rest of the movie is pretty damn entertaining too. And you get all that without even mentioning that the meat of the soundtrack was written by a young man in his first major film outing, and still going by the name Herbert, an amazing musician who has gone from Miles to Rock-it and beyond, Mr. Herbie Hancock!! Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a line up!!!!

Pretty funny set-up, as Thomas moves through the crowd to the throbbing beat of "Stroll On", and I couldn't, and I sure you won't be able to, not tap your foot or something, and yet the whole crowd is completely stoic, and never even twitches a muscle!!

Oh, did I say never? I meant never, like not until Jeff Beck smashes his guitar, and then, and only then, does the crowd go absolutely freakin' wild after he throws the broken neck into the crowd, and like a blushing bridesmaid at a wedding party catching the bride's corsage, Thomas ends up with the broken neck, and runs out into the night with the crowd pursuing him, and when he finally gets away, he just drops it on the sidewalk like a piece of garbage, and walks away!! What a statement!!! What a movie!!